10 Times Wrestlers Refused To Accept Certain Finishes
3. Shawn Michaels (1997, 1995)
It was a Valentine’s Day to forget for Shawn Michaels back in 1997 because, on the 13 February showing of Raw, the Heartbreak Kid lost his smile.
Michaels’ now infamous promo saw him reveal the news of a knee injury which would force him to relinquish the WWF Championship, before going on to pour his heart out and shed a tear over what some doctors were saying could be the end of his wrestling career.
Except, three months later, he was back on Raw winning the WWF Tag Team Championship.
Whether or not the promo was a work, some still claim that Michaels had played up the severity of his injury so as to get out of defending—and dropping—the title to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13. That may seem cynical on the face of it, but it’s worth bearing in mind this wasn’t the first time we’d seen this kind of stunt being pulled.
In 1995, Michaels forfeited the Intercontinental title after being beaten up by a Marine in a bar in Syracuse, meaning he wouldn’t have to be beaten in his scheduled match with Dean Douglas. Again, he genuinely was beaten up, but again people have speculated that he exaggerated matters in order to avoid doing the job.